So I'm Playing This New Fangled Mass Effect Game

[Seil]

And why can I only make some sort of fish person character?

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Seth Green?

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Carth Onassi?

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Keith David?


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So... no combat tutorial, no skill tutorial... nada?

[Aldurin]

Fuck some aliens, I think it gives a point multiplier for each one you do.

[Bells]

You are playing Mass effect 1?

Why? Why would you do that?!

[Seil]

Well... I've always liked medieval stories. The ones with knights and dragons and oaths and legends and great battles and nobility and chivalry. I always wanted to be a knight like the ones in stories. That's reflected in my choice of games; I've always preferred games like Oblivion to games like Fallout 3. Dragon Age instead of Mass Effect. But I've thought about it, (and I've been on a big Star Wars kick recently) why not play a Bioware title? They're usually pretty neat.

Besides, how else will I understand Mass Effect 2?

[Amake]

You can understand it fine, but to get a Shepard who you like to play as in ME2 you pretty much have to play the first one. Watch out though, I got used to the combat in the first and now I can't play the sequels. Rassum frassum weapon heatsinks not cooling down.

[greed]

The first is still a fun if outdated game. Just uh fuck the space buggy stuff. There's no tutorial cause it's stock standards stuff Seil, If you're not playing on the difficulties unlocked after beating it once there's no need to really think about skills at all either. Just go with what you feel like (though make sure you fill the Spectre tree when it unlocks, revive is kinda important).

There's not much to say about 1 other than it's a lot more RPG than the later 2. If you're looking at getting the later games you likely should know a few things going in

-You should have the major DLC for 2 if you've grabbed the Trilogy collection or if you're buying a new copy of the PS3 version. If not then then you'll want the Cerberus Network, Kasumi and Shadowbroker DLC.

-3's only decent DLCs are Citadel and Leviathan. Omega sucks.

- Be ready for 3's ending to suck. The rest of the game is great and honestly the middle of 3 is my favourite part of the series. But the last third or so is some Other M levels of disappointment, shoddy work and narrative/character derailment. So if you do get the other games, brace for that. It's a lot better than at release though, the redone ending and the fact that Leviathan(do Leviathan before 3's endgame) gives it some context really helps.

[Bells]

Well... in all honesty, you can totally play ME1 to get the full backstory and context. That is just fine and even recommended. But just keep in the back of your head that ME2 is insanely better in all aspects of gameplay and to some degree, storytelling.

[greed]

Well... in all honesty, you can totally play ME1 to get the full backstory and context. That is just fine and even recommended. But just keep in the back of your head that ME2 is insanely better in all aspects of gameplay and to some degree, storytelling.

Mostyl agree with that, 2 is generally better than 1. The new writer's hard on for certain elements of the series is pretty grating and introduces a lot of plotholes though.CERBERUS. It can be a bit annoying if you really liked the "militarised Star Trek" space opera of 1 and didn't like the different tone in 2 as well.

[Arcanum]

Well... in all honesty, you can totally play ME1 to get the full backstory and context. That is just fine and even recommended. But just keep in the back of your head that ME2 is insanely better in all aspects of gameplay and to some degree, storytelling.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaha.

*gasps for breath*

No.

[Azisien]

Man I've played Mass Effect like 7 times over now. (Protip: don't make my mistake, I only discovered on playthrough 3 and onward that the Mako had a cannon as well as the machine gun).

I've only played Mass Effect 2 twice. It's good and all but it's like summer blockbuster good (okay, great) versus awesome classic film.

...I don't talk much about Mass Effect 3. I played it once and I'm not even returning to it for DLC.

[Revising Ocelot]

Mass Effect 3 multiplayer was pretty fun. I haven't played it recently, though. Apparently there's volus classes now. Biotic ones.


Single player... eh, maybe I'll try it next year. Or maybe not. Maybe after New Vegas, which I've already delayed playing for about two years now.

[Ramary]

I feel like this is the 1000th time I said this.

Mass Effect is the closest to being an actual masterpiece, but is heavily flawed.

Mass Effect 2 killed the openness of the world and had a plot that was utterly worthless in the grand scheme of things, but the characters were well done, the side stuff was great, and the final mission was fantastic in execution (till the stupid as hell endboss anyway). My favorite overall.

Mass Effect 3 was inferior to the other 2 in every way.

[tacticslion]

I've almost played the first bit of Mass Effect, once. Both my wife and I made some kind-of-nifty Shepherds, and we enjoyed it right up until our computer burned out. Now I can't find the disks to reinstall it on our new one.

So, to weigh in on this conversation: clearly Mass Effect 1 is the best! The BEST! Because it's the one I played, so obviously it's perfect!

... right?

[Bells]

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaha.

*gasps for breath*

No.

oooooh c'mon now... sure, the story of ME1 might be overall better because it was building up to something, unlike ME2 which was locking itself to a path that at the time seemed promissing (both versions have smaller flaws though).

But at least on the visual and gameplay aspect ME1 looses badly. It's cluncky, slow, unpolished... ME2 was much better in that aspect.

Although, i'll admit that muthafugging Kai Leng on ME3 retroactively took several cool points out of ME2.

[Arcanum]

Gameplay-wise ME2 focused too much on being a shooter, which was a massive disappointment after the first game. Upgrading skills became stupidly simple and your inventory became non-existant as you picked up new guns and upgrades at pre-set points. Sure the inventory in ME1 was extremely clunky, but I loved finding new armor with new appearances to outfit my squadmates with. Not to mention the sweet variety in weapon mods and the ability for enemies to jam your radar if nobody in your squad had a radar mod.

The single cooldown for all your abilities was also a huge step back. I've played through ME1 as an Infiltrator, Vanguard, and Biotic, and being able to chain together my own abilities was awesome. Some might say constantly needing to pause the game while bringing up your biotic menu is clunky, but it always gave me turn-based rpg vibes and I loved it. So going from a biotic god in ME1 to "no you can only cast one ability at a time and then wait" in ME2 was a huge disappointment.

ME2 also stripped out vehicle segments. Now wait, before you go all "but the Mako was baaaaaaaaaad" I have two things to say. First, no, it's not as bad as the internet made it out to be. What was bad was the atrociously designed extra worlds you can fly to for extra missions, and how you were forced to manhandle the Mako through ridiculous, almost randomly generated terrain. Second, I'm talking about the sections on Therum, or Noveria, or Zhu's Hope where you're driving the Mako through an actual level. Where you got to see even more of the planet you were currently on. Those parts were awesome.

Were ME1's cover mechanics horrendous? Yeah, but I'm not that big of a fan of sticky cover so I shied away from it in ME1 because it wasn't really necessary since you could just stand behind corners/pillars/etc (and also spam Barrier because that was crazy OP) whereas I felt ME2 forced it on you more with an abundance of waist-high cover coupled with crippling your destructive potential (single cooldown, less abilities).

So while ME1 does have plenty of flaws I still find it vastly superior to ME2 because I can easily overlook those flaws. Whereas in ME2 all I can see is a huge step backwards.

edit- Also, using elevators to mask load times is vastly superior to a lame looping image for your load screen. At least the elevators had news reports and stuff playing in them. Loading screens are just boring.

[Ryong]

I had two issues with ME1:

"Hey Ashley. That was tough, wasn't it?"
"Yeah."
*sudden intense sexual tension from nowhere*

I also played the short-ranged specialist class - Vanguard? - and I felt the "melee" attacks were useless as the only thing I'd be close enough to use them is against krogans, which have their own, much better melee attack.

What I liked was that, no matter your class, you carried the 4 weapon types, which led to me using shotguns and pistols like a crazy fucker and then grabbing a sniper rifle with hilariously innacurate shots that could hit any single point in front of me.

[Bells]

Am i the only fucking one ever to play all these games as the goddamn engineer? C'mon now people... DRONES! DROOOONES!!

[Arcanum]

Am i the only fucking one ever to play all these games as the goddamn engineer? C'mon now people... DRONES! DROOOONES!!

Yes.

Why anyone would say no to Force powers is beyond me.


I also played the short-ranged specialist class - Vanguard? - and I felt the "melee" attacks were useless as the only thing I'd be close enough to use them is against krogans, which have their own, much better melee attack.


And yeah the melee has always been super underwhelming until they added the charge attacks in ME3. Like, not even in a practical-to-use sense, just in a "this does no damage and feels like crap" sense.

[Amake]

I wanted to love the drone, but I kept shooting it whenever I saw it and not noticing when it was gone. It needs more impact visually and in combat I think, like it should be close to a fourth squad member. Was there some level where it would look different or let you have multiple ones or something? Cause if so I may have to try engineer again.

[Arcanum]

I wanted to love the drone, but I kept shooting it whenever I saw it and not noticing when it was gone. It needs more impact visually and in combat I think, like it should be close to a fourth squad member. Was there some level where it would look different or let you have multiple ones or something? Cause if so I may have to try engineer again.

Nope.

[Seil]

Okay, so thanks subtitles. Saren and "The Matriarch." Now I guess I have to fight off every Masari ever. Even the strippers! And I liked the strippers!

And why didn't they call this game Mass Effect: Allies Will Run In Front Of You While You're Firing An Assault Rifle?

I guess that's just too long a title.

[Arcanum]

It's not really The Matriarch. Just the Matriarch that you're seeing. There are a lot of Asari Matriarchs.

[Seil]

Oh gods, why is the map so useless?

---------- Post added 04-24-2013 at 02:35 AM ---------- Previous post was 04-23-2013 at 11:11 PM ----------

DAY 27: Finally figured out how to leave the Citadel.

[Krylo]

And yeah the melee has always been super underwhelming until they added the charge attacks in ME3. Like, not even in a practical-to-use sense, just in a "this does no damage and feels like crap" sense.

I got a lot of use out of it in 2 with vanguard and the melee damage boosting cybernetics. Teleport in, shotgun one dude, punch another dude while reloading, shotgun a third dude. Time dilation ends. Nothing but corpses.

[Seil]

So hey, um, quick question: I went with the Sentinel class because it looked most like a cleric, which is what I'm most comfortable with in every other thing ever.

How do I get different weapons training?

[Krylo]

You don't.

Not until you completely master one and then beat the game with that character, upon making a new character you can add that weapon to them.

[Seil]

So in other words I should completely start over and respec?

[Krylo]

Pistol is the best weapon, anyway (other than maybe the shotgun, or if you have sniper rifle skill and just uh, put max damage and high explosive rounds on a sniper, but snipers are terrible in most combat situations, just HILARIOUS like that in the ones where you can engage at extreme range). I forget if Sentinel have the actual pistol skill?

If they do, Marksmen, when unlocked, is completely over powered.

That said, I do pretty much hate the sentinel as it does a little of everything but nothing well. I suggest Vanguard or Adept, personally. Engineer is boring and its abilities don't work half the time (organics tend to not cop to AI hacking), while Vanguard gets the BEST abilities if you pull it into ME2/3 and Adept is just a lot of fun all around. And Adept gets the pistol skill as well.

Soldier is easy mode, tho.

[Seil]

It's just that I'm having a lot of problems with the interface. I know it's supposed to be similar to Dragon Age (and it kind of is) but come on.

I liked Diablo II's inventory screen. I like KOTOR's inventory. DA:O isn't that bad. ME seems to try to make everything huge and simple and Fisher Price and there's bars and stats and everything and it's overwhelming.

[Krylo]

ME 1's Inventory is the worst thing in the world.

Rest of it isn't so bad. Just, uh, take your time, read what things do, and take it one point at a time.

[Seil]

WAUGH!

[Amake]

My approach to inventory management is scorched earth warfare: Keep your stock as small as possible at any cost. After you've put your squad in the latest fashion, sell everything every chance you get, keep one of every model if you're a) not sure what it does and b) not already possessing one of the same brand with a higher roman numeral. Upgrade modules for armor and weapons is the exception: You may want two of those rather than one. Remember that nothing below XIII or IX is irreplacible, so don't worry too much about accidentally selling stuff that may be slightly better than what you're wearing. It's much better than letting the crap pile grow until you give up trying to prune it and end up not being able to pick up the few good items you do find.

(In my opinion it's worth focusing on a squad of mixed alien genotypes and combat specializations just so you don't have to worry about keeping multiples of the same model armor or weapons around.)

[Seil]

They lost me as soon as they included upgrades to my Omni-tool.

...Who am I kidding, they lost me as soon as they told me "Throw Grenades" was down via the "Select" button.

[Steel Shadow]

Find the ones with the highest numbers and take them! And don't throw grenades, it'll screw you up in 2.